Mathematics in Western Culture

Mathematics in Western Culture PDF Author: Morris Kline
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195345452
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
This book gives a remarkably fine account of the influences mathematics has exerted on the development of philosophy, the physical sciences, religion, and the arts in Western life.

Mathematics in Western Culture

Mathematics in Western Culture PDF Author: Morris Kline
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195345452
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
This book gives a remarkably fine account of the influences mathematics has exerted on the development of philosophy, the physical sciences, religion, and the arts in Western life.

Mathematics Across Cultures

Mathematics Across Cultures PDF Author: Helaine Selin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781402002601
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
Mathematics Across Cultures: A History of Non-Western Mathematics consists of essays dealing with the mathematical knowledge and beliefs of cultures outside the United States and Europe. In addition to articles surveying Islamic, Chinese, Native American, Aboriginal Australian, Inca, Egyptian, and African mathematics, among others, the book includes essays on Rationality, Logic and Mathematics, and the transfer of knowledge from East to West. The essays address the connections between science and culture and relate the mathematical practices to the cultures which produced them. Each essay is well illustrated and contains an extensive bibliography. Because the geographic range is global, the book fills a gap in both the history of science and in cultural studies. It should find a place on the bookshelves of advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars, as well as in libraries serving those groups.

Mathematics in Popular Culture

Mathematics in Popular Culture PDF Author: Jessica K. Sklar
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786489944
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Mathematics has maintained a surprising presence in popular media for over a century. In recent years, the movies Good Will Hunting, A Beautiful Mind, and Stand and Deliver, the stage plays Breaking the Code and Proof, the novella Flatland and the hugely successful television crime series NUMB3RS all weave mathematics prominently into their storylines. Less obvious but pivotal references to the subject appear in the blockbuster TV show Lost, the cult movie The Princess Bride, and even Tolstoy's War and Peace. In this collection of new essays, contributors consider the role of math in everything from films, baseball, crossword puzzles, fantasy role-playing games, and television shows to science fiction tales, award-winning plays and classic works of literature. Revealing the broad range of intersections between mathematics and mainstream culture, this collection demonstrates that even "mass entertainment" can have a hidden depth.

Introduction to Cultural Mathematics

Introduction to Cultural Mathematics PDF Author: Thomas E. Gilsdorf
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111811552X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL MATHEMATICS Challenges readers to think creatively about mathematics and ponder its role in their own daily lives Cultural mathematics, or ethnomathematics as it is also known, studies the relationship between mathematics and culture—with the ultimate goal of contributing to an appreciation of the connection between the two. Introduction to Cultural Mathematics: With Case Studies in the Otomies and Incas integrates both theoretical and applied aspects of the topic, promotes discussions on the development of mathematical concepts, and provides a comprehensive reference for teaching and learning about multicultural mathematical practices. This illuminating book provides a nontraditional, evidence-based approach to mathematics that promotes diversity and respect for cultural heritages. Part One covers such major concepts as cultural aspects of mathematics, numeration and number symbols, kinship relations, art and decoration, games, divination, and calendars. Part Two takes those concepts and applies them to fascinating case studies of both the Otomies of Central Mexico and the Incas of South America. Throughout the book, numerous illustrations, examples, and motivational questions promote an interactive understanding of the topic. Each chapter begins with questions that encourage a cooperative, inquiry-based approach to learning and concludes with a series of exercises that allow readers to test their understanding of the presented material. Introduction to Cultural Mathematics is an ideal book for courses on cultural mathematics, the history of mathematics, and cultural studies. The book is also a valuable resource and reference for anyone interested in the connections between mathematics, culture, anthropology, and history.

Mathematics Elsewhere

Mathematics Elsewhere PDF Author: Marcia Ascher
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691070209
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Mathematics Elsewhere is a fascinating and important contribution to a global view of mathematics. Presenting mathematical ideas of peoples from a variety of small-scale and traditional cultures, it humanizes our view of mathematics and expands our conception of what is mathematical. Through engaging examples of how particular societies structure time, reach decisions about the future, make models and maps, systematize relationships, and create intriguing figures, Marcia Ascher demonstrates that traditional cultures have mathematical ideas that are far more substantial and sophisticated than is generally acknowledged. Malagasy divination rituals, for example, rely on complex algebraic algorithms. And some cultures use calendars far more abstract and elegant than our own. Ascher also shows that certain concepts assumed to be universal--that time is a single progression, for instance, or that equality is a static relationship--are not. The Basque notion of equivalence, for example, is a dynamic and temporal one not adequately captured by the familiar equal sign. Other ideas taken to be the exclusive province of professionally trained Western mathematicians are, in fact, shared by people in many societies. The ideas discussed come from geographically varied cultures, including the Borana and Malagasy of Africa, the Tongans and Marshall Islanders of Oceania, the Tamil of South India, the Basques of Western Europe, and the Balinese and Kodi of Indonesia. This book belongs on the shelves of mathematicians, math students, and math educators, and in the hands of anyone interested in traditional societies or how people think. Illustrating how mathematical ideas play a vital role in diverse human endeavors from navigation to social interaction to religion, it offers--through the vehicle of mathematics--unique cultural encounters to any reader.

The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam

The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam PDF Author: Victor J. Katz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691114859
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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Book Description
In recent decades it has become obvious that mathematics has always been a worldwide activity. But this is the first book to provide a substantial collection of English translations of key mathematical texts from the five most important ancient and medieval non-Western mathematical cultures, and to put them into full historical and mathematical context. The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam gives English readers a firsthand understanding and appreciation of these cultures' important contributions to world mathematics. The five section authors--Annette Imhausen (Egypt), Eleanor Robson (Mesopotamia), Joseph Dauben (China), Kim Plofker (India), and J. Lennart Berggren (Islam)--are experts in their fields. Each author has selected key texts and in many cases provided new translations. The authors have also written substantial section introductions that give an overview of each mathematical culture and explanatory notes that put each selection into context. This authoritative commentary allows readers to understand the sometimes unfamiliar mathematics of these civilizations and the purpose and significance of each text. Addressing a critical gap in the mathematics literature in English, this book is an essential resource for anyone with at least an undergraduate degree in mathematics who wants to learn about non-Western mathematical developments and how they helped shape and enrich world mathematics. The book is also an indispensable guide for mathematics teachers who want to use non-Western mathematical ideas in the classroom.

The Artist and the Mathematician

The Artist and the Mathematician PDF Author: Amir D Aczel
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786732881
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Nicolas Bourbaki, whose mathematical publications began to appear in the late 1930s and continued to be published through most of the twentieth century, was a direct product as well as a major force behind an important revolution that took place in the early decades of the twentieth century that completely changed Western culture. Pure mathematics, the area of Bourbaki's work, seems on the surface to be an abstract field of human study with no direct connection with the real world. In reality, however, it is closely intertwined with the general culture that surrounds it. Major developments in mathematics have often followed important trends in popular culture; developments in mathematics have acted as harbingers of change in the surrounding human culture. The seeds of change, the beginnings of the revolution that swept the Western world in the early decades of the twentieth century -- both in mathematics and in other areas -- were sown late in the previous century. This is the story both of Bourbaki and the world that created him in that time. It is the story of an elaborate intellectual joke -- because Bourbaki, one of the foremost mathematicians of his day -- never existed.

Mathematics for the Nonmathematician

Mathematics for the Nonmathematician PDF Author: Morris Kline
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486316130
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Book Description
Erudite and entertaining overview follows development of mathematics from ancient Greeks to present. Topics include logic and mathematics, the fundamental concept, differential calculus, probability theory, much more. Exercises and problems.

Roots of Western Culture

Roots of Western Culture PDF Author: Herman Dooyeweerd
Publisher: Paideia Press
ISBN: 9780888152213
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Confronted with the implications of a biblical understanding of the human condition, human society and the place and calling of scholarly reflection, Dooyeweerd contends that humanism has done more for the recognition of human freedom for religious convictions than did 17th-century Calvinism.

Science and an African Logic

Science and an African Logic PDF Author: Helen Verran
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226853918
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Does two and two equal four? Ask someone and they should answer yes. An equation such as this seems the very definition of certainty, but is it? In this book, Helen Verran addresses precisely that question.